Multiple user equipment (multi-UE) simulators simulate multiple UEs connected to one or more evolved node Bs (eNode Bs) under test. UEs are wireless devices, such as mobile handsets, and evolved node Bs are the wireless access devices in LTE or LTE advanced (LTE-A) networks through which the UEs attach to the network. UEs that are connected to an eNode B are hereinafter referred as attached UEs. For each UE being simulated, the multi-UE simulator is required to decode multiple control channels, one of which is referred to as the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). The PDCCH contains downlink control information (DCI), which contains a resource mapping (e.g., frequencies, modulation, data block length, etc.) for decoding user data transmitted on a different channel, referred to as the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or resource mapping for sending user data on a different channel, referred to as the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). During a given transmission time interval (TTI) and/or subframe, the simulator is not aware of the UEs to which the eNode B is sending the control information. Accordingly, the simulator is required to monitor the PDCCH channel for all possible DCI values corresponding to the attached UEs that might be present in the PDCCH channel. Monitoring the control channel includes attempting to decode the PDCCH data with a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) for each UE being simulated. Since DCI decoding is time sensitive and since a multi-UE simulator may perform DCI decoding for multiple simulated UEs, it is important that the simulator performs DCI decoding quickly and efficiently. Moreover, some of the DCIs that are decoded may be false. For example, a DCI may correspond to an unattached UE that is not being simulated but for which the eNode B transmits a DCI during a given transmission time interval. Some DCIs may be false DCIs because of the nature of the PDCCH channel and particularly given the fact that coding for DCIs is relatively weak in LTE networks. False DCIs may lead to invalid decoding of PDSCH data, interpretation and corruption of valid downlink data of another UE, unexpected ACKs and NACKs transmitted on uplink channels and corruption of a valid uplink transmission of another UE.
Accordingly, there exists a need for methods, systems, and computer readable media for enhanced CCE decoding.